As the title of the thread says, this is a tutorial on how to replace the batteries in Botcon 2001 Arcee’s voice chip.

The reason I’ve put this tutorial together, is because when I received my Arcee, her voice chip’s battery was dead, and I couldn’t find a tutorial on how to fix this problem. I searched for quite a while, but I could not locate any photos of the voice chip, or, indeed, any information on whether it was even possible to replace the batteries. Speaking with other collectors had lead me to think it might not even be possible. Happily, the voice chip does indeed use batteries, and they can be replaced without too much difficulty. With these figures becoming older, and with so little information available, hopefully, this guide will be of use to some other collector in the future.

Before we begin, here’s the equipment you’ll need: three A76 watch batteries, a nail clipper with a flip-out nail file (preferably coming to a point), a flashlight, a small curved plastic object, and plenty of patience; this is not a project to be done in a hurry.

First of all, this is what the voice chip looks like inside the box itself. It’s simply the electronics stored in a small white disc attached to the box side.

The opposite side of the box looks like this.

The voice chip is glued to the box. At the time that this guide was written, the glue on mine had mostly dried up, and fell off easily after I gently pried on it. Only the rim of the disc has had glue applied. Gentle pressure from the flat side of a nail clipper should be more than enough to remove it from the box, without harming either the chip, or the package.

When you’ve finished, the disc should still have enough glue residue to attach back to the box easily.

Next, get the flashlight, and shine it onto one side of the disc. It should illuminate the inside of the disc. You’ll see four circles, three small and one large. The small ones are the watch batteries, and the large is the speaker and voice chip unit. Take note of which side the batteries are on. This process will be easier to do if you turn off your lights, and the room is dark.

Now, at the side with the batteries, look closely at the side of the disc that was stuck to the box. There is a small, thin line where the foil-like sticker is attached to the container. Applying gentle pressure, slide the point of the nail clipper underneath the foil-like sticker. Do not push through all the way, only enough to lift the sticker from the container.

The actual electronics are attached to the sticker, not the container, this is why you have to proceed slowly. Pry up only around a quarter to one half of the sticker, just so you have enough room to work.

When you’ve finished, this is what you’ll see:

You’ll now want to use a small, curved plastic object to push out the
batteries. While you could use the nail clipper, I would advise against it. There is the danger of static electricity discharging and damaging the electronics. While unlikely, better safe than sorry. I used this Bionicle Lego piece.

From there, simply slide in the new batteries. Here is a picture of that batteries that came with Arcee, for anyone not familiar with watch batteries.

From this point, simply close the container; if yours is like mine, the glue residue should be strong enough to reattach to its place in the box! Congratulations, you’re finished, and your Arcee voice chip will once again speak!

Special thanks for the making of this guide go to:

3H Enterprises: For making this beautiful figure, and being willing to add in the electronics! Thank you!

Susan Blu: For being so kind and generous to donate her time to record the lines for the voice chip, as well as all her contributions to the Transformers over the years as voice actress, and voice director! Thank you!

Attached Files:

Nice guide, though I was actually ecstatic when the batteries on mine finally died I remember coming back from that Botcon worried that customs was going to tear them apart as they kept going off every 2 seconds.

I figure that sometime, someone else is bound to have the same problem that I did, and hopefully, this guide will make things easier.

Your story is pretty funny! My Arcee also activates pretty easily. It seems even the Botcon employees had some difficulty with how sensitive the voice chip is. During my search for a tutorial, I came across an old report of the convention report that said when the Arcees were unloaded, the lights in the room set them off......all 800 or so of them! The report said the Botcon employees were trying to get them all to stop, so that the surprise wouldn't be ruined! Fortunately, no-one heard the sounds, and the unveiling went as planned. But 800 figures all talking at once is highly amusing!